Methodology of Document Analysis

Document analysis is widely used to supplement a literature base, support research findings, illustrate the “change and development” of research objects or issues, expand arguments, and uncover questions that have not yet been addressed.169 This approach is particularly important for this thesis because the ECFA is a timely and fairly new issue across the Taiwan Strait, which has not been sufficiently analyzed in the academic realm. However, collecting data is not an easy task, and it could be difficult to discern credibility when there is an immense volume of documents. While policy documents constitute the main evidence used to support analyses of China’s and Taiwan’s strategies for managing cross-Strait relations and regional economic integration affairs, this thesis uses those policy documents published by either the Chinese or the Taiwanese government as references.

167 _{Sullivan, “Is Taiwan Studies in Decline?”, 707-11.} 168 _Ibid.

169 _{Gleen A. Bowen, “Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method”, Qualitative Research}

Journal 9, no. 2 (2009): 29-31; Tim Rapley, Doing Conversation, Discourse and Document Analysis (London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2007), 115-20.

Specifically, the archives of China’s Taiwan policy are mainly available from the official website of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (TAO), which is the highest official institute responsible for carrying out Beijing’s Taiwan policy. The other source is the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), which is the semi-official institute responsible for carrying out negotiations with Taiwan on behalf of the PRC. With respect to China’s foreign policy documents adopted by this thesis, they are all from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MOFA, PRC). By the same token, this thesis adopts the archives of Taiwan’s China policy published by either the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China (MOEA), or the Mainland Affairs Council of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (MAC), which is the highest official institute charge with coordinating Taiwan’s Mainland policy. Additionally, documents released by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taiwan are also analyzed, as this institution is the counterpart of the ARATS, managing Taiwan’s negotiation with the Mainland. Finally, all of Taiwan’s foreign policy documents come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (MOFA, ROC).

Furthermore, speeches made by either Chinese or Taiwanese leaders are also valuable in helping this research understand both sides’ strategic concerns behind the ECFA. Official proclamations or news releases by the government are important sources; mass media also provides abundant news articles containing remarks from the leaders of both sides. Nonetheless, incomplete information contained in news articles or bias in news reporting could be misleading.170 Therefore, to avoid

170 _{Bowen, “Document Analysis”, 28-29.}

misinterpretation, this thesis has chosen only those news articles with original quotations from interviewees as references.

Apart from the policy documents and remarks from both sides’ leaders, this thesis also requires statistical data on various economic indicators (e.g. investment, GDP growth rate, etc.) to study the ECFA and economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. All of the statistics concerning cross-Strait economic exchanges are available on the MOEA website, and the Taiwanese government also updates this data once a month to ensure their accuracy.171 Given the convenient accession and timely updates, the statistics of trade and investment across the Taiwan Strait shown in this thesis are mainly based on the MOEA database. In addition, statistics on China’s and Taiwan’s economic performance conducted by the WTO and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are also used in this thesis.

As for economic statistics at the regional level, the “UN Comtrade Database”, which provides statistics on commodity trading, enables this research to investigate East Asian regionalization by illustrating the total value of parts and components trade among East Asian economies.172 _{Meanwhile, the database of “Integration}

Indicators” created by the ADB also covers a wide range of economic indicators, such as the total volume of intraregional trade and investment, which generally satisfies the needs of this research.173 Yet statistics on Taiwan’s contribution to regional trade and investment have been omitted in both the UN and ADB databases. In order to compensate for the shortage of data regarding Taiwan’s economic

171 _{Investment Commission, MOEA, ROC, “Monthly Report (December 2015)”.}

172 _{United Nations (UN), “UN Comtrade Database”, 2016, accessed January 24, 2016,}

http://comtrade.un.org

performance in the Asia-Pacific region, this thesis provides official documents comparing the FTA coverage rate between Taiwan and its major competitors in the region obtained from senior officers in the MOEA and the Executive Yuan in Taiwan. Moreover, thanks to the MOEA’s effort in collecting statistics on bilateral trade and investment in East Asian countries on a year-by-year base,174 this research is still able to examine Taiwan’s role in the process of regional economic integration by reviewing these statistics together with UN and ADB data. By referring to the above statistical data, this thesis examines not only the degree of asymmetric economic interdependence between China and Taiwan but also both sides’ contributions to economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, which are crucial for evaluating China’s commercial diplomacy towards Taiwan.